Egypt plans gold cap for pyramid

A plan to install a "golden cap" on Egypt's Great Pyramid of Cheops for millennium celebrations is under discussion, the country's minister of culture, Farouq Hosny, confirmed yesterday.

Archaeologists and opposition newspapers claim the plan would endanger the 4,600-year-old monument because of the cap's weight. The original plan was to keep the golden cap for one year, but Mr Hosny announced on Wednesday that it would be kept only "for a few hours before being removed" and that it would be made of light material.

He added that a special committee of archaeologists, engineers and ministry of defence officials was discussing the best way to install the cap, probably using a helicopter.

"The cap is already there and had been manufactured, but the question is how to put it on top of the pyramid," Mr Hosny said.

Egypt is planning a large millennium celebration at the Giza plateau at a spot from which the audience would see the pyramids.

The French composer Jean-Michelle Jarre, renowned for organising concerts with electronic music and laser lighting at historic sites, is due to arrive next week for rehearsals.

"Since the pyramids are linked to the sun, I have decided to stage a modern, multimedia opera that will last 12 bows and accompany the sun from the second millennium to the third millennium, in the tradition of Ra (the Pharonic god of the sun)," Jarre announced to reporters recently in Cairo.

The golden cap would be installed at the peak of the concert at midnight, marking what Mr Hosny said was "the world's third millennium and Egypt's sixth millennium".